captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: go evening. i'm gwen ifill. the nation's1.4 trillion deficit watopic number one in washington tod. president obama is planninto call f a three-year freeze on some government spending. >> woodruff: and i judy woodru. on the newshour night: the sena rejected a plan to crte a bipartisan panel to tackle the defit. we'll talk to setors kent conr and jd gregg. >> ifill: thenhow are the pocy debates in washington affecting the politil debates leadinup to the midterm elections. >> woodruff: pl solman takes a al estate tour in atlanta wi

two experts on houng prices. >> there's reasons tbelieve it will stay down and ere are reons to believe it's going to come ba. that why you economists drive peoplerazy. you do understand that. >> absolutely. >> ifill: ray suarez hashe story of amecan doctors and nurses helpi to rebuild haits shattered health care system. and the obama administration gets an "f" for s ability to respond to a biolocal attack. >> ill: that's all ahead on tonight's "pbsewshour." major nding for the pbs newshours provided by: ba of america

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live a hlthy productive life. and with thengoing support of thesinstitutions and foundation and... this program w made possible by the corporation for public brocasting. and by contributions to yo pbs station fr viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the spotlit on the deficicame as the congressiol budget office warned risinfederal debt could strangle the enomy. >> woodruff: the flurrof terest and calls to cut spending came from both endsf pennsylvania avenue. from the white hse... >> we haveo get our fiscal house order. >> woodruff: ... to congss... >> we can no longer afford t spend money we do not have >> woodruff: ... the focus i shington today was on red in and reining in spendin >> thicountry's going to have to pay the piper. >> woodruf the president's

proposal to frze outlays for three years is expected toome nexteek, when he submits his budget to congress. it would take effect in tober, and leave untouched programs like medicarand social curity, and national defense ite house spokesman robert gibbs said the cuts uld be stragic. >> the president wilcut programshat are duplicative or see what he believes is no important purpos and instead inve in, as families do, investments for the ture. >> woouff: the proposal would freeze $7 billion out of the $3.5 trilliobudget, or about 17% ofederal spending. it's designed to sav$250 billioover the coming decade. republic leader mitch mcconnell iticized the idea as too all. >> freezg non-defense domestic

discretionary spding would be a go idea. however,f you put into the baseli the stimulus, tp, and you account for inflation,t's not nearly as big a step as e american people are asng us to take. >>oodruff: the president is expected to dress the deficit, among otheeconomic issues, inuding unemployment, in his state of the union msage tomorrow night. in an interview with abc new diane sawyer, mr. obama acknowledged some choices he will make are not litically popular. >> the one thing i'm clear aut is that i'd raer be really good one-term present than a mediocre twoerm president. i willot slow down in terms of gog after the big problems that this untry faces. i am not backing o the need for us to ckle these big problems in a serious y. >> woodruff: but new nbers out today from the congrsional

budg office confirmed the magnitude of the challen fang white house officials-- creating jobs while tting spending. the deficit for the ye is predicted to be $1.3trillion. senators graled with options to bring down that numbe the top two members on the budget committee, chrman kent conrad and republican dd gregg, presented a biparsan plan to create a task e to reduce the debt. but the plan was voted dow senators also faced a famiar proposal to increase the nation'segal debt limit-- this time, by $1.9 trilon-- enough new rrowing to cover the government's bills throughhe end ofhe year. that vote uld come as early as the end the week. for a closer look all this, i am joined byhe two senators who spearheaded theffort to create bipartisan panel on the debt. from the bget committee, chairmanent conrad, democrat

of north dota; and its ranking reblican, judd gre of new hampshire. senators, go to see you both senar conrad, let me start with you. you're into pennsyania avenue. you hear progrsives say right w a recession is not the time tcut spending. the governnt should be spending, get e economy moving the deficit will take re of itselfhen this is over. why that wrong? >> the defic won't take care itself. we are on cruise control to bt that will be 400% of the grs domestic product of the unitedtates if left unchecke so, look, i agreup don't raise taxes or cut snding in the midst of downturn. what we prope is to put in place a process deal with the long-term debt bomb that ovhangs this country, that threatens the economic security of the united state progressiveshould support at effort, as many did today because they understand if y fail to act, social securi isoing broke.

medicare is going brok it is t progressive to allow those prrams to fail. >> woouff: senator greg, why is this bipartisan tasforce idea that the o of you were pushing,hy was that the right way to go or w is it the righway to go? >> because thesessues are so big, judy, thayou can't adess them in a partisan way. you have to have evebody at the ble. everytng has to be on the table-- entitlemts and tax issu-- or otherwise the american peopldon't trust the sults. e american people inherently undersnd if it isn't bipaisan, it probably won't be fr. weet up this task force in a manner that not only w bipartisan but also requir super majories to report. 14 o18. so that ither side could gain the other. it required per majorities to pasit in the senate so body could game anybody. the results of thitask force woulbe seen as fair, honest and bipartisan, and wod have popular support which is vy important. any initiati that affects

these types ofrograms like medicare, medicaid and tax. >> woodruff: if it was sh a od idea, why were you not able to persua enough of your colleagues u needed a super majority to pass it. you dn't get that. >> we goa majority. we got 53. if all senats had been present and voting we'd ve had 54. at is a remarkable move from where have been in the past. no, we didn'have a super majoty. part of the reasons left and right, oanizations on the left oanized to oppose it. organizations the right did thsame. and still we managed to t a majority in the unit states senate. i think that ss there is momeum building behind the idea we have goto deal with the debt threat fang this cotry. >> woodruff: sator greg, what do you y to members of your own par who voted against thisecause they said it would havlikely led to a x increase. >> i say you have to havmore confidence in our membship. i mean 8 of the members apinted from the congress are going toe republican membs. they were ing to be appoind by senator mcconnell e republican leader here in

the senate and four byouse member boeer, the republican lead er in t house. i'm sure they wodn't put people on thisommission who would underme the basic republican phisophy and how you approachax policy just like i don't expect eaker pelosi or speaker reed tdo at in the area of, say, social security. that's why this commission would have been succesul because you would have h pele at the table first who understand t issues which is very important and whoave a commitment to doing sothing about the issues but also wh carry thr portfolios of their vaous constituencies of the two parties. any product they produce, i believe, would have goen strong suppo. i belie it wouldn't have solved the whole pblem. we doesn't couldt do that but it wou have been a significant ep down the road towards getting this pblem under contro remember, this problem i undeniable. we a facing a fiscal bankruptcy of this natio within 7 t10 years if we do not step up and starto do something out controlling the size of the debtf our country. >> woodruff: senator conra now ha that it has ge down for now, we're told th the white houssays the president

is condering appointing by executive order group that wouldo something similar. would that be fective some. >> look,he reason senator greg and fashioned the plan that we did, a statutory coission, is because that's the only w you can get a guarantee that the recommendations that group ll be actually voted on by the members of coness. so, have proposed something we thought w the most effecte way to go. are there other alternativ? certainly there are. but i still believe a statory commission that would require a vote on the recommendations of the gro is the best wato go. woodruff: senator greg, what's your take on the idea of the president appnting a pal to do something? >> i don't thi it gets where weeed to go. there are four basic pblems with that. first it's not bipartin. you actually have toave something voted out of the congress in bipartisan way. second it is is not fast acked and can't be fast tracked. it is not an up or dn vote

and it can't be. 's amendable. that doesn't work. so you have to have the statutory structure order basically to deliver a pduct to the for of the senate whh can actually be voted on and can get somethindone. i don't think an executive order can accompsh that. >> woodrf: meanwhile, senator nrad, what we were hearing today from the white house the president ds pl to propose this spending freeze three yrs discretionary spenng. is this sothing that would be helpful? >> yes, certainly. that is a mo in the right diction. i think we have to uerstand when you're lking about just 17% of the budget-- and that what non-security domest discretionary spding represts -- a three-year frze is useful. but that's not going to solv the prob problem. what theountry faces is a tsunami of debt. whate have to understand is how fundamentallthat threatens e long-term economicecurity of america and th's why senator greg d i worked together and

again i'm delighted at 53 of our colleagues votedith us. but we need more. we need peop across the country to send a meage to oucolleagues that this is something th must be done. woodruff: senator greg, is the president's freeze proposal a good stt or as some of your rublican colleaes have said today, too little too late. >> it is a gd start if it's ue. we hen't seen the specifics of the plan. 5 billion on a $1.4 trillion deficit. so y can get a pretty good idea that it's not goi to move us very far down the ro towards relieving the pressu that we're going to fe as a nation. very interesting tng happened tod. it's likely that the japese debt will beowngrade because they're about ve years ahead of us in their problemselative to their bt. that'soming at us. we can't afford to do at to our childr. one generation should neve pa on to another generation a less prosperous tion. that'shat we're going to do unless we doomething about all this debt we're loing on our ki' backs.

woodruff: where do you go from here? senator conrad, you didn't g e 60 votes today. what do you do >> keep working, keep fighti and keep prosing. you keep searchingor a way to accomplish the sult. i ve said i will not support any long-term extension ofhe debt , absent a credibl commission bei put in place. by "edible," i mean one that provides an surance that there is a ve on the recommendationof the commission. i thinthat is essential. >> woodruff: and, senator eg, the two of you a working together a republican and a democrat but are your colleagues, reblicans and decrats, going to be ale to come together onhis? >> well, i thi senator conrad iright. i mean we have 5votes here. thatas a pretty big vote. it was bipartisan. i think we jushave to keep pushing e ball up the hill. you know, one of the reans i opposed this huge extensioof e debt limit, $1.9 trillion is i think we should revit this issue later in e spring and the debt lit is the right vecle to do it on.

i'hopeful we'll have another chance to comeack to this issue later inhe spring and ta it up again because i think the americ people understa it. they understand that they can't possly manage their household if they were dng eir household what the deral government is doing to the federal finances. they want us to step uand do something rious. th is the most serious propos and really i think e only one that's going to have any oppornity to be vile. snb we will come back an check on how that ll is ving up the hill. thank you both, gentlemen. >> thank you. >> thank y. >> ifill: now, for the oer news of the da we go to hari sreenivasan in our newsroo >> sreenasan: in iraq today, a suicide car bomber attacd a police crime l in baghdad. at least 22 iraqisere killed and 80 more injud. reue crews combed through the rubblend cleared debris, only to finmost of the dead and injured were police officers e blast follows the executio of saddam hussein's cousin known aschemical ali", and raisedpeculation that today's attacks were retaliaon by sunni insurgents. but the top u. commander in

iraq, army gener ray odierno, said he saw "aolutely no connection" betweethe two. an american ba inside kabul was the target of a suide bomb attack. 14 people we wounded, including eight amerans. thbomber set off a minivan packed with explosivesear camp phoenix. the taliban claime respsibility for it, saying the bomber was aiming a civilian cvoy. it comes jusover a week after taliban gunmenaunched an assault on kul that brought e capital city to a standstill the los anges city council gaveinal approval to close most shops that sell medal marijuana. the are currently between 800 and a thousa pot clinics operating acro l.a. but undethe new rules, that number wilbe capped at 70. mayor antonio villargosa still has to give his apoval for the ordinance take effect. on wall stet today, stocks made early gai, but those fadein the closing minutes of trading. e dow jones industrial avera st more than two pointto close 10, 194. the nasd fell seven points to

close over,203. formerepublican senator charles maias has died at his home in maland of complicaons from parkinson's disee. mathiarepresented the state of marylandor 26 years in both the house and senate untilis retirementn 1987. as aiberal republican, he champion civil rights, opposed thnixon administration's policy on the vietnam war,nd work to clean up the chesapeake bay. mathias was 87 yearsld. thosare some of the day's main storie i'll be ba at the end of the program with a previewf what you'll fintonight on the newshour's web site. but for w, back to judy. >>oodruff: and still to come on the newour: housinprices-- going up or staying wn? partners in health care in haiti; and failing grades on a apons test. th follows our look at two key senate consts. if president obama didn' already have enough on h plate wh it comes to policy issues, now e political ground is shting under his feet as well, even on me turf.

in delaware, the u.s. senate seat ve-president joe biden held for 36 years is up r grs. but mocratic attorney general josephbeau" biden-- the vice- president's so- announced this ek he will not run to succee his ther. and thodds immediately shifted to favorepublican mike castle, an eight-tm congressman who also sved as the state's governorrom 1985 to 1993. and illinois, a strong republan challenge is taking shape for the seat mr. oma vacated when hbecame prident. a new "ccago tribune" poll has five-term congreman mark kirk holding a strong ld in the repuican primary contest, and state trsurer alexi giannoulias holding a narrow edge on thdemocratic side. illinois primary voters goo the pollnext tuesday. here to exain the choices those voters will face, ar uart rothenberg, editor and publisher of "the thenberg political repo". he tracks congressional race

across the natio michael mezey, pfessor of political science at depl university in chago; and joseph pika, interim associate dean of the collegof arts and sciens at the univsity of delaware. welcome to you all. professor pika, i want to art with y. bring us up toate on what happened in deware. why didn't bo den run as was so widely expected? >> as attorney general ben explained, in hi decisionhe really felt he was commied to pursuing the atrney general's office a particularly the procution of a very, ver celebrated case in our southern most county of a pediatcian who had abused patnts, primarily yog girls who were in his care. thisas been such a horrendous case where th allegations are justo outrageous that he felt that

it would be wronfor him to stepown from the attorney geral's office when he confronted this enoous challenge and on a case whh is so high-prole here in the states. >> ifill: it's fair to s this puts mike castle who a popur former governorn a small state in the cat bird' seat. >>bsolutely. he's bn one of the most successful politicns that delaware has ever en. he's been elected office since 1966 with the exceptio of tee years bere he reallyoved in to the lieutena governor's office. and so he habeen returned to officeepeatedly and has won basicalla dozen contests on statewe level. so hs a very, very successfulolitician here. >> ifillthat's one decratic seat that looks like it mate be headg republican. let's goo illinois. professor mezey, what we know abouthat's happening in illinois and do we see

perhs ecs of massachusetts? >> well, gwen,here are some echos of massachuset here. first of all, we he a decratic candidate who, like the democratic cdidate in masshusetts, may need a bit of aharisma transplant. if he wins the primary, he i not e most exciting ndidate. the other hand, mark kirk a... in some respects the democrs' worst nightmare. you have a very modere republican, a person who i pro-choice, who has a d-rating from the national rifle association, so he's antgun. has got a strong rating fr the human rights coalition in termsf gay issues. he's voted for cap-andrade. so it's going to be very difficult for any democrat candidate to paint him aa far right person.

and i think that creat here in illinois a blue state not quite as blue as massachetts but certainly a blue sta. it's a republican who s the best chance of winning of beating democrat. >> ill: in a state where barack obamaas so recently the senator and wherthere is some residl affection for the president, one presus, why ist this seat a lock for the democrats? >> well, i think the publicans will likely, assumi mark kirk is nominate--nd i think he will be-- he's a very strg candidate. i think the demoats have not come up with a verstrong li of candidates to oppose kirk. in addition, givenhe problems of ouex-governor blagojevich, it'not a particularly good ar locally for democrs. governor blagojevich or rmer gaffe r blagojevich is likely to be o trial inhe middlef the race this fall. that's going to

tar virtually any democrat on the baot. so, that is challenge for the democrats. i don't ink it's a slam dunk r the republicans, as joe ems to think delaware i but it'soing to be a very compitive race. >>fill: blagojevich may also turn up onelebrity apprentice, i gather, eve. why is it that that ... neither of these cdidates, neither of these republicans are considered to be conseatives in t way that scott brown was. the tea party movent is not embracing them whachlt is different and what'she same. >> these a both moderates. kirk , they arefter him. in daware republicans have rallied behind much castle because there's not mu of a republan party left. he's the only guy in tn. en, what i'd say is that these races you ha to evaluateaces on two levels. the local rcumstances and then the natiol dynamics. in thease of the local

circumstans in both places, republicanhave unusually strong candidates whcan appeal tindependent voters and swg voters. and e democratic field in one state nonexistent. in the oer it's not what democrs were hoping for. they wand a statewide elected official to be a nominee. that didn'happen. e candidate recruitment was critical. then the nationadynamics are dramically reversed from two years ago. >> ifill: let's lk about it a lile bit. the naonal mood is generally considered to be cranky ght now. does that translate in rac like thior in other races around country that yore watch somethin >> aolutely. first all people think that the country is hded off on the wrg track. ifou look at any of the national pls, is the country headed ithe right direction or off on the ght direction? the right direion numbers are in the mid 30s whi the wrong track goes fro55 to thlow 60s. almost 6ut of 10 americans think that things ne to be changed. we'ring if in the wrong direction. th benefits the out party. second of all there's the

check argument about t check on democrats in shington. cnn asked you think it's good for the country obad for the country thathe democratic par is in control of congress? in june of 27, the democrats have taken over congss but threpublicans still had the white house. george w. bush unpopular 57% of aricans said it's good that the democrats pay in control of congress. in june of this year wn the democrats ntrolled everything, that nber was down to 50. st week in the most recent cnn numbers od for the countr 45. d for the country, 48. >> ifilldoes this all blow back on prident obama or are ese primarily, i'm thinking also of florida and i' thinki of other states and neva where harry reid has got a tough go of itnd pennsylvia where arlen ecter has a tough go of it, does this also reflect back president obama,he white house seems a little alarm. >> no qution about it. it's a combition again. pretty good republican recruiting. and annvironment that's

fundamentally shifted as voters say, wait a mine, we're unhappy. too far too st. some democtic voters saying we're not gog far enough fa enough. but generally dissatisfactio fear, worry, concern, ange l those emotions all benefiting the outarty. the guys talking about cnge. it's just like two yea ago and four yearsgo, gwen, just a different party. ifill: change goes the other way this time. professor pika, in delaware, wh are the issues which are driving people to e polls, eping them home fro the pos, making them content or discontent. >> i thinkhe biggest issue comingp will be jobs. laware has lost a significant number of bs particular blue-collar jobs in northern deware. the economreally hasn't bounced back at al the ncern is, i think, about continued dget stringency in the ate. so i thi that there will be a lot of conce about the potential for ineased taxes and resiance to that. i thinfurther down the list there wille some concern

about health carand certainly educatio is an issue areahat remains very important to delawareian but i think in general, there's a growing nse of impatience i think e term cranky is ght. i think itaptures the mood here. i think there's a feelinthat we reay need to get back on firm footing and kd of move this forward. >> ifill: are they cray in linois too. >> jt as cranky as they are delaware, perhaps more so. i think that we just need a little perspecti though. i obviously age with much of wh stewart said. we sll are a good ten months away from election d. if the economy tur a bit, if there's some improvent in unemployme, i think some of th mood may dissipate a little bit. another persctive one can argue ishat while certainly there's antipathy tohe democratic party, there ma

al be an antipathy to incuents in general. mark kirk and ke castle both have beeincumbents. it will be a little t difficult foeach one to run saying they' going to clean up the mess in wasngton when they've ea been part of washgton for such a long time. whoever the democratic capd date is wi run as an outsider whoay be able to make a credible campaign promise that he is not parof the mess and wilgo to washington to clean thingsp. >> ifill: professor michael mezey, prossor joe pika and the nocranky stewart roenberg. >> i cane cranky. >> ifi: thank you all very much. >> woouff: next, the housing market. day's release of the standar & poor's ce-shiller home price index showed salesrices rose slight from october to novemb by .2% that's on a seasally adjusted basis. buprices were down over 5%

compared to novemb 2008. newshour economics crespondent paul solman went on a ur of atlanta real estatwith the men who developed the inx. it part of his reporting, "making sense of finanal news". >> reporter: reaestate broker ennis antoine, taking o of americas top exper on housing ices-- economists karl case and robe shiller-- to a velopment minutes from downtown atlanta. how many bedrooms? >> three bedrooms, twoaths, granite, hdwood floors, stainless steel pliances >> so the are really nice places? >> very nice pces. >> reporter: 16 ry nice places in a very nasty market. woodlawn estates, a would- gated community, broke gund in 2005-- thetlanta market taking off. ju a year later, phase one was done. local demand at that pnt? unhinged. >> the wheels came off thehird quarter, june of '06. that's wn everything started

falling apar people stopped payintheir mortgages, they weren't qualifying, foreosure inventory wentp. and that's when everybody realized, whoa, ybe the credit was too easy for most pele. >> reporter: so only two of e 16 units sd. buennis antoine's been betting on the $8,000 federatax credit, exteed through the spring. and we also had a state tax crit of $1,800 which, if you're a firstime home buyer, u've got $9,800 just to buy home. cole that with lower interest rate and low prices,ts a great timeo buy. we had one of our be months in tober and november, great mohs. reporter: in fact, atlanta home prices rose% in november, thfirst year-over-year increase since 2007. and a national indexf home prices w up for the sixth month in a r. that's the case-iller index-- case, shille ... created by karl case andob shiller.

u've looked at data back int the 19th century. so where are we now lookinfrom a long-term pepective? >> we've had the bgest bubble in american histy, as regards the whole market. it was everywherand it was huge, and it pked... it went up for almos9 years up to 20, and its been going down now for over threeears. >> reporter: and that suests that itsoing to go down more? it's going to co back? i mean, looking agn long term, what's your best gue? >>ell, there are reasons to believe it's going tstay down and there are asons to believe it's going to co back but... >> reporter: you know at's why economis drive people crazy! you understandhat? absolutely! but here's the tng-- prices are down 30%. we bieve that when prices go down, people buyore! so the attractivess of this operty when prices have been falling for three ars is pretty high. >> reporter: so tractive that

bob shiller-a long-time newshour guest who warned rly and incessantly about bothhe stock market and real tate bubbles-- now worries that another bubble could be foing. >> people ha gotten very speculative and very qui to respond to chang, and they think that the recession is er and want to buy fore the market turns up very muc and so y want to buy in advance and ahead, and tha sparks new specutive excitement. >> reporr: but chip case-- normally more optimistic tn shiller-- fearanother crash more than another bble. >> wdid 6.5 million home sales this year-- that's a he mber. but it's notor sure that this is t bottom. i meanif you look at the four states where half the foreclose auctions have come from, thers just a huge inventory ill there. it's gng to take a while for that to ear. >> reporter: tho are?

>> florida, cafornia, arizona and neva. >> reporter: meahile, all acrossmerica, developments like woodlawn tates sit vacant d so 14 units here recently went to auctio >> the starting d is $50,0. reporter: $50,000. >> $50,000. >> repter: what are they going to go for do youxpect? >> probably $100-10500. >> reporter:lmost two thirds f the quarter million dollar asking price. a steal! in the c coming over here, when ennis told that these thingsere starting off at $50,000,ou both independently said "gee, mae i'll buy one of these! you are the speculive fever! that'st's a sense of oprtunity that is exciting some people right now. >> reporter: and in atlant says ennis antoi, the inventory unsold homes is down to 6500. >> we like to see $50,00-

$55,000, but in '07 d '08, we've seent higher than 10000. so its definely improving as ventory is being reduced. >> reporter: but youe not way down twhere you had been historically? >> no sir. not all. but were gting towards that point. so we shou be there by the cond quarter of 2010. >> reporter: supporting th optimism, says pfessor case: onlyalf-a-million new homes are beg built at the moment. >> 540,000-550,000 - thas the lowest lev in 50 years and its been that low now for a fu year. we'rabsolutely producing nothing relative to what wve producedver the last 50 years. >> repter: so that means that fewer homes are avaible, the pric are down, interest rates are low. >> salesre up. >> reporter: sales arep. so that means ings will get beer. is tt true? >> tt's what it would se. >> reporte and yet, those rned two-handed economists keep looki at their data. >> wsaw prices jump up since april cording to the case-

shilr index, but lately, it's been weakening aga. in fact,ith our latest numbers its st flat and i worry that there's, you know, it s driven tomuch by these tax credits and government support andhe sense ofhe end of the ression, and it might just slipack into further decline. >> there are 15 llion unemployedeople in the united states >> reporr: at least. >> that's a binumber, and the ration is longer than its be ever. and you d on top of that the incredible difculty of getting these properties throughhe foreclose process, there's three million properties in reclosure like these units a its t over. we'rnot out of the woods. >> reporter: or, thinkin globally but speing locally, not out ofhe woodlawn estates. >> ifilland now to haiti, where u. troops pulled another man ale out of the rubble, two eks after the earthquake struck, accoing to reuters. hundreds othousands of suivors still find themselves campg on the streets of the capital,ort-au-prince. today, haian president rene preval asked the internatial

community to provide 200,0 tentto shelter some of the one llion haitians left homeless by the qua. separately, a state departnt spokesman said the u.s. deat toll in the quake nonumbers ose to 100. and lieutent general ken keen, the u.s. comnder on the ground, said amerin troops ll stay as long as they're needed. that effort incles rebuilding iti's now-shattered health care sysm. ray suarez repts from port-au- prince on the long road ahd. >> suarez: when thbuildings came cshing down, the patients came rushi in. and two weeks , the living are scattered in hostals on both sideof the haitian-dominican border. many have badly damaged boes, manyn hospital beds have nowhere else to go. but aftethe initial trauma, haiti is now turning corner. >> the major challge now is post-op careand what we would call in the medical professi, discharge planning. how do you dcharge a patient and asre quality care when they are homeless? and w do you make sure tha

infections don'tevelop? how do y make sure that bandages arehanged for ampute or wounds that have been debrided? and i would y this phase is the most difcult phase because, soo all the groups here now wilpull out. >> suaz: dr david walton is american. he's spent most of hisdult life caring r the people of haiti. eight months of thyear, he works fopartners in health, an american mical n.g.o. its ssion-- assist haitian doctors and nurses and an overrdened ministry of health by helping create, n impose, solutions. its pertise here has proven vital, andas uniquely positioned it to help reild hai's shattered health system. now, a sll army of voluners has arved as varied as the colors on thr backs-- norwegian red crs, e.m.t.s from brooklyn, internatial medical corp to name a few, all working under the wahful eye of the 8d airborne

division of the u.s. ay. >>uarez: walton stressed that he works for general hospita director dr. alix lassegue, o ok me through the darkened streets of his hostal's complex to juvenile rds where exhated amputees lie awake in stifng heat. i ask hiwhen there'll be room for these patients ioors. says there already is. this buildg has been inspected by engeers, and they've decided that its perfectly usle and occupiable. and the patients, after the tershocks, are too nervous t be treated inside,o they are ouhere in these tents. that's just e of a mountain of allenges for dr. lassegue. ny of his staff died; others are attered, attending to injured and dead family meers in theuins of their homes. he's proving care for a patit populati that is also largely homeless, d he can

hardly send amputees tlive on the sidelk in front of the ruins of their home. >> the government isn the way set up some tent village where we could have dischae person. suarez: frightened patients a doctor shortage wh the voluntee go home, nowhere to send the recovering-- it's monumentalreally. but this buiing is a constant reminder to l at the hospital of what thcountry's lost. up to 150 send-year nursing students at this, hai's only public teaching hospit, were killed when the ilding where they tined collapsed. the recovery hasnly begun, and the smell of human remai stingshe air. buhaiti's medical challenges, and partners in alth's role in thresponse, range far from port-aprince. thousands of iured headed out of the capital tother parts of haiti, many king the bone- jarring two-plus houtrip up rutted roadshrough haiti's

beautiful and poverty-strick central plateau, to onof the on places they could get help in those terrible first days the 25 yeaold zanmi lasante mecal complex in cange. earthquake victimsoured in from the capital, triplinghe tient load at the small hoital, and overwhelming a placmore accustomed to dealing with h.i.v. and tuberculos thanith challenging surgical paents. they filled the spital wards, th filled the church with the suffering. 100 doors and 400 to 500 nurses swed up. the remote clinic ot 1,150 x-rays in thatirst week. dr. maxy raymondlle, an obstetrician and gecologist with partners health. >> we lo all communication w port-au-prin. the cellhone, they are not working and i say, "whoa, were in trouble." and quickly, truckbringing patients startedo arrive, and weon't know how they reached he. the emgency room was packed with 40, 50.

in less thanwo days, it was more tha150 lying everywhere. ♪ >> suare the haitian episcopal priest whoounded this eration, father fritz lafontant, brought prayersnd song to the que victims packing his little hospital. quietly singinalong was a young senarian, ben-jean falot. the 29-year-old had just nished making a esentation at seminar when the quake began. he was trapped ithe rubble for 18 hoursand lost his right arm. >> ( translated ): we had just finished the semin, and i was going to anothereminar when the earthquake hit andhe house fell down. suarez: ben-jean was right- handed, and tolde he hadn't thought mu about his life

ahead with o arm. he just thanked god he was ive. thatransitional problem-- what to do with the recovering,ut no lger seriously ill-- is even more challenging re in cange, far, r from where these patients live,r used to live. >> they n't have anyplacto go. keep talking to everyone, aski "where are you living in port-au-prince?" they say, don't have any home." i said, "okay, you need to tnk about discharge." and some othem will need follow up. we d't know exactly how we are going to deal with tha >> suarez: all the dtors we spoke with want to reminyou of one thing-this is not a crisis that will be over in a weeor a nth. port-au-prince pulverized health infrastructur and the lives ofts most ill patients, will take years toix. and dr. lassegue says, wle he's grateful r outside help,

he wants to tell dors that the solutions and the w health stems will have to be run by haitiansfor haitians, even if they're funded frooutside. >> we know we ne help, but this iour plan. this is our vision of iti in 25 yrs to come so, help us. i may foll your advice, but don't tell me, "do thior do that." but don't forget-- it'my country, not yours. >> suarez: he kns most of the new help will go home, eventually, but he dsn't want haiti totallon its own when that happens. while general hospital ces, the cris is far from over. 's well understood that many of the injured remain out port-au-prince's nghborhoods. so, aid organizationlike the international medical cos

are sending teamout into the mashift camps day after day, pushing back ainst this country's unlding medical cris, one person at a time. >> woodruff: finally tonight grading amera's ability to prevenand respond to a terrist attack with weapons of mass destrtion. margaret warr has the story. >> warner: more an eight years after the dely anthrax attacks, the u.s. still isn' epared to protect the public against a biological terrori act. that was the word today from the congressiolly chartered commission on e prevention of weaponsf mass destruction proleration. in an earlr 2008 report, this panel warned that it wa likely that befo the end of 2013, a weapon omass destruction wod be used somewhere in the wld by terrorists. it rommended 17 steps to counter that. in tod's report, the

commission gave the white house and congss an f in three of those are. developing rapid response capability, providing effectivcongressional overght, and recruiting the next generation of national secuty experts. itave them four a's in other areas including reviewing current ograms to secure dangous pathogens and adopti an ter-agency bioforensic rategy. for re we're joined by the panel's airman former democraticenator bob graham and its vice chairn former republic senator jim talent. gentlemen, welcome. thk you for being here. >> gat to be here. >> wner: let's start with yo assessment actually 14 months ago. is there any doubt in ur mind--nd i'll begin you with senator graham-- butither of u, that the threat remains as youssessed it then. that whin the next four years, it is lely or more likely than not at some terrorissomewhere in the world will use a wpon of mass destruction. >> if anhing, the odds that

we gave a year ago, ich was more likely than not, ve probablyone up in the past 14 months. that i it is higher than just straight slightly more than 550 that some place on earth a terrorist grp will use weapon of mass deruction between now and the end of 2013. the ason for that is that accessibily, particularly a biological materials has increased e sophistication of al qaeda as we saw christmas day become if anything greater and more diffused. we believe that the risk is real and growing. >> warner:his was a animous finding. >> yeah, and we'll rea a probabilit by aroun2013. of course we don have intel, teing us the attack is going to occur i2013. if you lk at the trend lines it a short-term risk. that was our poi. this is not the next generation that s to worry about is. >>arner: when you say trend lines, brief, what do you me? >> althougwe are doing

things a making progress in particularreas as a government and with alli, they are active al. 's like we're running but they're ruing faster. >> warner: let's takone... the f's that i think made everyone the most neous which was that a system stl hadn been developed to respond quickly to a bioteor attack. are you taing about what? preventing mass sualties? what do yomean by that? >> first, we mean deterren. the reality is thaif a terrorist gains acce to a biolical weapon, they're gog to ask themselves where can we use ts weapon to the eatest effect? so the degree to which y are prepared to responto it becomes a signifant amount of your deterrents, at it t be used against you. but ifou are attacked, the adeqcy of your response capabilities can rede the number of casualties into th thousands, n the tens or hundreds of thousas. erefore, it will make it sothing less than a mass destructe event.

warner: senator talent, what is missing in that area what hasn't been done? >>nfortunately about everhing is missing. we've not stock pilethe countermeasus. we didn't have enough vaines for h2n2 witsix months' noti. we don't have planned syems for diributing the countermeasures in the event of an attack. many cities n't know whether an attack has occurred we don't have thdevices to tells that. we don have the capacity to ean up afterwards. th is why we gave them an f because every link ithe chain of response call it a chain th links is ininadequate. there's really nreason for that. the chairman likes to int out correctly this is somethinwe can do on our n. don't really need international partrs to do it and we ould be doing it. >> warner: so why hasn it happened? it hasn't happened, i think first, because there been a tendency twant to deny the istence. >> yes. >> people view biological attack as seven letts in october 2001. that w a terrible thing but in scale iwas much less than

a mass attack. what we're talking about ia rrorist putting a slury of anthrax in t back of a truck with a dispensing device which makes it almost invisible, driving through a major americ city and potentially affectinhundreds of thousandof people. that's the sle that we think we're going to be dealing wi unless we take some mediate action to ise our barriers againsthe attack or to be able to reducets consequences. >> ourstablishments are used to the nuclear thrts so new administrations hit the grnd running. we gavthe obama administration prettgood grades inuclear. but they're very slow to recognize bio. it was true with clinton. it was true for bush. unfounately, it's true for obama. we've been ting to tell them for e last year that they ne to unt the learning curvmore quickly. >> warner: you did though nator talent give them a

more mixed set of gres on steps that would prent an attack. at least they've assessed where thdangerous pathogens are. just describe that aittle bit. have they done at let some preventiveork. >> they have. that's in the nature of a udy though. and it wasur recommendation. they did it. so we gave thean a on that. we have to see how they implement it. there are so centers in the vement tt are doing bett. there's a committee in the coress, joe lieberman and susan collin committee, that have been aggressive in pushing legislation thatould cover a lot of these are but that's oneommittee in one house of congress. that'sot good enough. we're st on too short a time ame. >> warner: f instance on prevention i noticed youave th just a d or a d-plus for tually tightening government rerictions on the labs where these pathogens are ing used. >> yes. 've done several studies of what nds to be done. they're very csistent. we need toeduce the number ofathogens that we are suecting to sutiny today.

we're trying to monitor 80. we thinkn fact the are eit that are the most likely to be used by a teorist grp in a weapon. we also are suggesting tha there be signifint increases in uniformity. weave multiple agencies now that are assesng these labs anthe standards from one lab to the other can be quite different. thir we think that at the international bioweapons conventi which will be held in 2011, the united stes needto lead by example. weeed to say, here's what wee done. you, other countries of e world, should seour standa as tt to which you will aspi. >> warner: your former colleaes on capitol hill also came in f some criticism re. you basically ga an f for adequate committ oversight. whats the problem there? >> well,ne of the reasons 're behind in bio as a government is that decisn- making in the bio area is fragmented. thers over two dozen

officialin the executive branch. thsenate confirmed officials who have a piecef the bio responsibity but none of them are full time there's no senior potical appointee the nsc whose experien is primarily bio. coress is trying to oversee the department of homeland security which has most of thisurisdiction through 70 or 80 different committeesr sub committees at is point. at oversight is not only not helpful but a negative 're not the first commission to tell them to chan that. this time we said, you'vgot to do it. we jusgave them an f. they're not ev trying to change it. >> warner: this is yr first report card on this administration. are you going to kee monitoring this? >> yes. our commission expir at the end of february buwe're going to set up a nonprot bipartis entity to continue to work wi the congress, wi the administration, imementing our recoendations. we're particularlyoing to be focused the role of the tizen. what can we do to beer

prepare individual americans to defentheir own homes as well always contribute to their communities' defense and we're gointo issue another report card eay in 2011. >> so very briefly, have y gotten indicatio from the white house and congre that they aually welcome this, senator talent? >> ihink the president is going to talk about thneed r better biopreparedness in the state of the union aress which is a good sign. warner: senator jim talent, senator bob grah, thanks very muc anks for your work. >> ifill: ain, the major develoents of the day: the coressional budget office rned the nation's more than trillion deficitould strangle theconomy. that message came as predent obama plans to call for a the- year freeze on se government spding. toyota suspended the u. sale of eight vehicle mods to fix accelerator pedalshat might stk. 2.3 million ucks and cars arinvolved. the auto makerill shut down production in fi plants in nortamerica for a week in

february to addresthe problem. for the recordtoyota is a newshour funder. the newshour ialways online. the newshour is always onle. hari sreenivas, in our newsroom, previews what's the. hari. >> sreenivasanwe have an update on veneelan president hugo chavez's moves to jum art the economy by devaluing the currency. that comes fromichael shifter ofhe inter-american dialogue. the start of a series of viewints on climate change leslation. judy woouff begins with peter molinaro of dochemical company, with more cversations follow. and get ready to respond to e president's ste of the union message tomoow night. find out h you can submit your own reactionideos to our youtubchannel, and your commts to our blog. all that and more isn our web site, newshourbs.org. gwen. ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i judy odruff. we'll seyou online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and od night. major fundg for the pbs

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